fic: Any Ruffian of the Sky 2/2
Any Ruffian of the Sky
Firefly/Battlestar Galactica crossover (in which a BSG character or characters are transported to the Firefly 'verse.)
Pairing: Mal/Kara, some Simon/Kaylee.
Summary: Some people gotta find their own way in the 'verse. But if a man needs a pilot and a pilot needs a ship, could be they'll find their way together.
Spoilers: for Serenity the movie and anything through 'Lay Down Your Burdens' part 2 of Battlestar Galactica. This story takes place in a prospective BSG future, but contains no specific spoilers for season 3. If I refer to something that turns out to be true at some later point, I honestly have no knowledge of it being so now.
Disclaimer: I offer this story up to the internets, I own nothing except the way I put the words together. I just love pairing up Mal and Kara. Title from "Your kingbird" by e.e. cummings.
part one
Kara woke up the next morning alone. Fortunately, her head was clear. Her ability to hold her liquor was hard-earned and had kept her out of tight spots with captains before, but it also left her high-strung and moody. She hauled herself to a seated position and looked at the time. She'd prefer to sleep closer to the bridge, but she supposed they kept her in the lower part of the ship hoping she'd be less trouble. She used the toilet and checked out her matted hair in the cracked mirror, fluffed it a little and called it serviceable. The next challenge was finding a serviceable outfit. She had her threadbare tanks, two pair of pants, her jacket, her C-Bucks sweatshirt, socks and underwear. Only the underwear she was wearing had been bought within the last year. She hated all the clothes she'd seen for sale in this crappy 'verse, and a few months back had started to seriously regret not tracking down all the Fleet-issue clothing items that were discarded in their mad rush to fit in. She'd noticed right away the Alliance was anxious to make the Colonials look like any other damn citizen. Others never got why it bothered her--and probably never would. She wished she hadn't cared.
And she really wished she had a cigar to smoke right now.
Kara had decided to frak Mal. She hadn't had a good frak in awhile--a *long* while--and a few hours of dead sleep didn't make her forget the slow burn that bloomed like the booze inside her skin and informed her she wanted him. The itch hadn't gone away with the light head, and she hadn't been turned down in a long frakking time, either, so she was just irritated enough to ignore good sense. Sleeping with her commander never got her anywhere, but she was always just stupid enough to not care.
She arrived at breakfast all friendliness, watching Mal with strategy in mind, giving no hint of her imminent plan. But Mal was either a terrible drinker or more affected than he put on, because he was in a foul mood. Kaylee and Simon stumbled in late, as they were often, and Mal gave them a more pointed once-over than he ever had. "Much as I endeavor not to see the goings-on in my engine room, I surely don't have to abide the two of you come untucked to the table." He gestured impatiently. "Set yourself to rights, and Kaylee, I don't want to hear giggling this time neither."
Simon sputtered in embarassment, but Kaylee was still amused. "That's alright, honey. He's been in a bad mood since Inara left again. Some folks can't appreciate--"
"Reckless behavior? Foolish carrying-on all over my ship?" Mal demanded. "You remember what you were hired to do aboard this boat, little Kaylee, because I swear to you the moment you neglect your duties, you'll be left in the next port same as anybody else." He tossed down his napkin and stood up. "We'll be two weeks to the next one. Ain't too soon to plan." He marched himself off to the bridge, and left Kaylee and Simon looking stunned. Kara looked across the table at Zoe, matching her blank face.
"Old girlfriend?" Kara asked.
"I can't believe he talked at me like that!" Kaylee exclaimed. "What's wrong with the captain, Zoe?"
"Could be you oughten bring Inara up so much, Kaylee," Zoe said. "Trying to make it what it's not. Captain got that tamped down, you keep stirring it up."
Simon put his hand on Kaylee's shoulder. "The Captain would never put you off this ship, Kaylee," he said reassuringly."Me, on the other hand..."
"Simon, Cap'n woulda set you off long ago if he really wanted that."
"Don't either of you go reassuring yourselves," Zoe interrupted, tone brooking no argument. "Fussing won't get the job done." She replaced her knife and fork back beside her untouched plate and stood up. "What isn't working does us harm. Captain's not wrong asking you to get your heads screwed back on."
Jayne wandered in from the direction of his bunk, Zoe brushing him aside as she left. He headed for the food on the table, oblivious to the faces he passed in single-minded interest.
Kara reached for the last ship biscuit the moment before he did, and slipped away from the table without a word to take her shift. River was just leaving when Kara reached the bridge. She quirked her eyebrows at Kara oddly, but said nothing. "Hi," Kara said to Mal, taking River's seat in the co-pilot's chair. She pinched off a lump of hard tack in her hands. "You get bit by something last night in bed?"
He glanced at her sharply. "Interesting question, Major Thrace."
She looked away, frowning. "You looked me up?" She paused. "I thought they classified all that."
"Alliance locked it up real tight, which by-the-by is not soothing me. Only offers a note as to your rank."
"Former rank."
"As you say." His expression says clearly that the distinction is dubious at best. Her temper flares.
"Hey, I don't know what your hang up is about my military experience, but if you're looking for an excuse to throw me off your ship, I bet I can come up with a hell of a better one."
"I won't have any member of my crew answering split loyalties, ain't no way to stop one dividing the other. Crew has to answer to just one captain, 'n that's me." The fierceness in his voice only made Kara angrier.
"I've taken orders from a lot of high-handed Commanders in my time. I was loyal to every frakking one I served under, fit or not, and I only trusted one, but you really out-do them all. I don't know *how* to be loyal to two things at once," she said with bitterness.
He crossed his arms as she sat glaring at him, seeking out her rucksack in her mind. She kept her things packed when they weren't on her back, and her bag was tucked under the foot of her cot.
"You've raised a curiosity, Kara. You follow orders as you see fit or you follow a captain who gives fit orders?"
She rolled her eyes. "Sounds like the same thing." She turned away. "You going to let me do my job, or what?"
He said nothing for a few minutes and she ignored him. He was alarming in the upfront way he confronted problems. She definitely got the vibe the question was settled, but she couldn't shake the fear he was up to something else. Eventually, he pushed himself up out of the pilot's chair, saying, "S'pect I ought to get my money's worth, at that," and left.
Kara curled her hands into fists and gritted her teeth. She didn't know how to deal with this. He demanded answers and accepted them in the same breath. He didn't trust her and he clearly didn't resent it. He wouldn't sleep with her and he didn't treat her any different. And if Kara Thrace had learned one thing, it was that peace wasn't safe.
"We'll be wanting to pass through subtle-like the Alliance blockade 'round this planet." Mal leaned over Kara at the wheel. "They seem to get a kick out of checking papers and legal-shaped documents, of which we have none."
Kara looked back at him. "No problem. Low and fast work for you?"
"Should, at that," he replied. He shot a glance toward the other empty chair. "Where's River gotten to?"
"She said something about going down in flames and left."
Mal caught himself before he fell on the floor of the bridge, looking at her with slack face. She smirked. He felt compelled to remind her who was captain and how yanking the captain's legs out from under him was not a sign of respect, but she did seem to be the only pilot immediately available with hope of getting this ship down safe. He grit his teeth. She laughed, watching atmo break across their bow.
"Girl's got a way of getting her point across that isn't always clear outside her head," he said finally, forced to grab hold of her chair as the ship vibrated wildly.
"I noticed that," Kara replied. "Here we go, I'm shooting down to that canyon."
Mal cringed. "Wished you wouldn't use the word 'shoot'..." The ship dropped like a stone, right out from under him, and right through the radar zone, he'd guess. He found himself still on his feet just under cover of the valley, sun just going down over the craggy plains ahead. "Could be bandits in these," he warned her. "Strafing fire from either side."
She nosed the ship up, just as they near got tagged on the port side. "Frak," she murmured, flying true to center. "How high can we go before the Alliance picks us up?"
He was buckling himself into River's chair, checking monitors. "You get above ground and they'll see us," he said, reading numbers off.
She was quiet a moment, watching the flare of fire falling short of their broadside. "Oh, please," she said with sudden bravado. "I can skate on that much space." With that, she brought her hands up on the stick and the ship lifted away from the ground.
"That space ain't no bigger than this ship," he snapped across at her. "You get an inch above and they'll have us." He kept his eyes glued to the screen, cursing in his head. Damn fool military pilots, thinking all the time with their sleek jets. No getting around it, and he knew it well enough from the start.
"I won't get...an inch...above," she drawled; sounded like she was panting or licking her lips, but he didn't look up. "How'm I doing?"
"Keep her steady," he replied. He rested his hand on his ship, touching her gentle so she wouldn't start. Serenity was gliding along smooth as anything he'd ever seen. "There," he said finally. "We should be out of range, and our landing spot's just under this second ridge, tucked down close to the valley."
She didn't respond, but the ship did, dropping at increments until they floated slow over the landing space and touched ground with no bounce on the landing gear. Mal found his ability to speak caught up in his dry throat, and it was as well he didn't have need it.
Kara touched his ship's panelling, looking more'n a little impressed. "Good girl," she said, with a surprised turn to her voice. She laughed, soft and a mite breathless.
Mal watched her, mighty surprised himself. He stood up and she never glanced at him, standing there. He left to give her a moment alone, smiling to himself as he went.
After supper, after ignoring Jayne's complaints about being two days early, after watching Zoe push food around her plate and Kaylee refuse talking to Simon, Mal was in no mood to abide the company of his crew any longer. He made it clear he was headed for his bunk and an early night, catching up to Kara in the corridor as she escaped for solitude as well. He touched her elbow and brought her up short. "Surprises me, Kara, that you spend so much time alone. I had you pegged for a social sort."
She snorted. She crossed her arms and scratched idly at her chin. "Only when I can get them drunk, beat them at cards, or beat them up as I see fit." She smirked. "Otherwise, it seems like a real waste of time." She turned to part ways with him there, but he reached out again. She looked at him, part doubt and part impatience, but no wariness in her expression.
"Join me in my bunk," he said, and watched for that gleam to come in her eyes. She turned her back on him once more, and put a swagger to her hips in the one stride over to open his hatch, skimming right down his ladder.
She reached bottom seconds before he did, and had her shirt peeled off before he'd gotten that far with his thoughts. Startled him enough to realize her forwardness the other night hadn't been so much the alcohol as the girl himself, and it relieved him somewhat. He could see this woman was a force to be reckoned with, nothing coy about her as she pressed herself to his chest giving no thought to wielding her assets. He kissed her once, not getting too lost, and put his hands around her arms, making her step back. She was a damn fine woman, standing there with bright eyes and a strangely innocent face. He rubbed his hand up and down her arm, and as he did he glanced over the tattoo that covered one entire bicep.
Certainly, he'd noticed the marking before, but never asked about it, anyone having a right to secrets of a private sort. She smiled slightly at his touch, making no motion to volunteer the story, and he held his peace. She was a sinuous bundle of motion, lifting her hips against him and pressing the small of his back. Her face was all lit up and curious as she ran her fingers across his body in return, feeling out his scars even as he found hers. Merely to touch had a rightness to it that didn't require talk. She traced patterns with fingers and toes and followed suit with tongue, and he found himself inspired to do the same, curled up tight with her there in his bunk and not hardly any room to get creative, yet they made room for each other, twisting and turning and fitting until coming together seemed the natural thing. Her voice was gentle, a steady hum in his ear, letting him know how he was treating her. She was responsive to his touch, to the movement, as sensitive as a ship but prettier laid out on his pillow. She rested her hands around his neck and murmured, "Captain," a tremble of laughter in her breast, as he leaned his nose against her shoulder and breathed heavy. He rolled off her and smiled, trying to think of something witty to remark. She turned onto her side and looked him up and down, a look in her eye that said she wasn't nearly done. Then to kiss her again weren't nothing but a kindness, and nothing witty to be said about it at all.
He'd been keeping a wary eye on the goings-on between Jayne and his new pilot, with the desire that any unpleasantness happen right in front of him rather than somewhere he couldn't shoot them. Seemed Jayne and Kara were both more inclined to get tetchy when things were quiet, so it didn't surprise him in particular to come across the two of them boxing in the cargo bay. Did, however, surprise him that he had to haul himself out of bed to find her there in the middle of the night.
Mal leaned on the catwalk spanning the bay. For the moment, it seemed the pleasant way to let it be. Momentarily, Simon joined him, leaning on the rails nearby. Mal let it pass without comment, though the young man looked far from entertained. It hadn't escaped his notice that a discord had sprung up between Simon and Kaylee, following the words he spoke over their relationship. It seemed his young mechanic might well have kicked him out of her bed, and Mal, fresh from a groggy rest and wearing his boots but otherwise barely dressed, felt no need to stick his nose in.
"I reckon little Kaylee'll get over it, Doctor. 'Less of course she aims to talk you into leaving, settling down somewhere isolated on the ground or some other ship." Well, he was the captain. It was his prerogative to know what went on, on his very own ship.
Simon sighed, heavy with weariness. "I'm not leaving, Captain. I couldn't, not with River the way she is."
The falseness grated with Mal, just as it always had. "Imagine you and your sister are in as much danger as you ever were, Doctor, from the men in white coats with their needles, but I s'pect the Alliance itself has other things to be worried about just now. Moving about should be a sight easier, should you care to travel."
Simon looked at him and nodded, slowly. "I didn't mean that, though, Captain. I meant--how she feels. About Serenity." He brushed one finger over the top of his nose, a sign of discomfort. "It's home now."
Mal glanced him over, the man-boy who, in more than one ways, ought not be standing here by his side. Simon didn't duck his head, and he didn't flush with the protective instinct that'd long been the double-sided burr in Mal's side. Could be he'd learned something, after all this time. Mal wouldn't begrudge him the lesson.
"We'll do whatever we need to, to stay," Simon finished. Mal nodded shortly.
"See that you do, Doctor." He left him to jog down the scaffolding. Kara and Jayne didn't look as he came up wto them. "Seems to me far too few people on this boat are sleeping, while it's yet dark outside and no use us heading into town for a meal."
Kara stepped out of Jayne's reach before she glanced at him. "Is there an order in that somewhere?"
Jayne snorted, stepping in too quickly. Kara struck him across the chin, but he got under her arm before she moved back.
"Hey!" She held her stomach.
"Don't suppose Jayne knows any fancy rules," Mal remarked, "but I hope you two are pulling your punches. Last thing I need is two members of my crew taking each other out."
She shrugged and swung her shoulders, loosening up. The antsy energy was pouring off her, same as every other night he'd caught her down here. Girl had trouble getting rest, that was plain to see. "All in fun, Captain."
Jayne watched her narrowly. "Yeah, Mal," he repeated.
"Be that as it may," Mal said, stepping between them. "There's a few hours before dawn, and you should be about getting some sleep."
Jayne opened his mouth to whine. "Go on," Mal waved him off. "Two of you can finish hitting each other later." He went to open the storage box so they could drop their gloves back in, and saw that Jayne took himself upstairs. Mal was slow about following, but didn't wait about for direction. Half way up, he noticed Kara was heading the other direction. "Hey," he called down to her.
She glanced up at him. "Off to get my two hours of laying down with my eyes closed, Captain," she smirked. Her hair was stuck to her face and her eyes were dark and tired. She kept moving.
"I find the ceiling in my bunk can put a man right to sleep. Or woman, be that as it may," he added, magnanimously.
She grinned and whirled on her foot, dashing right up to him without hesitation. She was leaning in to kiss him, closed-mouth. "I don't know, Captain. Didn't seem so bad to me."
"S'pect you just weren't trying hard enough."
Her eyes lit up at the challenge. "Okay," she agreed, and threaded her fingers inside his unbuttoned shirt. "C'mon, then."
The town saloon doubled for a general store, the two of them taking up the largest and busiest building in town. Simon tried to get out of going, offering to stay with the ship, but Zoe out-ranked him, and ignored the look Mal shot her when she said she'd stay behind. Kara knew there was a story to Simon's hesitance to go out in public, but no one had ever volunteered to tell it, and she didn't particularly care to know. River was too excited about stepping out to eat to get too worried, anyhow.
Kaylee was still making a big show out of ignoring Simon, and only walked with River when the younger girl took her arm. Simon lagged behind and from where she walked with Mal, Kara could hear well enough Jayne deliving a harangue which Simon mostly tried to ignore. Kara grinned and watched Simon's attempts to fall out of step with the bigger man, Jayne oblivious to all social niceties.
"Reckon a better man would try to rescue the young doctor," Mal remarked eventually.
Kara laughed, light and airy in the fresh air. It was the first time in years she'd walked on the ground willingly, not afraid she'd never be back in the air. "Let him see to himself," she said. "Or you'll embarrass him."
Mal smiled slightly. "Can't have that."
At the wide porch of the big, clapboard building, Simon stopped and spun about to face Jayne. "I do *not* think a man has to stand up to his 'woman,' as you say, in order to get respect. I believe men and women are capable of coming to some sort of--arrangement--out of mutual respect, and in that way they can find some measure of peace or--or--agreement." His eyes blazed back at Jayne, and he opened his mouth to continue, when Kaylee fell into his side and grabbed his arm.
"It's alright, honey," she said with a wide smile. "You don't have to make fancy speeches to get me back."
Simon looked perplexed, as Kaylee pulled him with her through the entrance. River pinched Jayne as he went by. "Ow!" He jerked back and she danced out of the way before Mal had to jump in. "What was that for?" Jayne whined, rubbing his arm.
River smirked. "You know what." She rolled her eyes enigmatically and followed Kaylee and Simon in. Jayne looked at Mal beseechingly.
Kara laughed outright. "Never pegged you for a romantic, Jayne."
Jayne scowled. He said something like, "damn women running the ship," under his breath, going in ahead of them.
Kara nudged Mal. "Nice crew you got, Captain."
"Have noticed that," he replied.
They sat around a table--all six--and ate real eggs, presumably from real chickens, and apples, which were the only thing that grew on this planet and were readily available. The apples were, in fact, what Mal intended to trade the load of fertilizer for, assuming things actually went to plan the next day.
Kara wandered the general store with Kaylee and Simon, Kaylee with a better idea what they'd need and Mal holding the purse strings tight. A ship was never so well stocked they didn't need odds and ends, something for the ship, or something to replenish the food supply. Kara was well acquainted with how fast a reasonable pantry could become short supply. Mal and Jayne were asking the storekeeper about scrap metal outside, and Kaylee was working on Simon over a piece of pottery, when River jerked around and looked at the door, alarmed. Kara turned, but there was the dining room still packed and the doors were flung wide, men out on the porch smoking lazily. Kara herself was fingering a dusty box of cigars.
"What's the matter, River?" Kara asked absently. Mal looked up, accounted for his group quickly, and tensed when he locked eyes with the girl. Kara dropped the box.
The doorway was full of men in uniforms, swarming into the store. The storekeeper stepped in front of them. "Gentlemen, are you here to eat or on business?"
"We're here to apprehend--"
Kara paced forward enough to cover the three behind her, hand dropping to the gun on her hip, and the official's eyes landed on her hard. "Keep your hands away from your weapon," he snapped, three of them coming toward her from each side. "Present your papers."
"Sir." Another held up a scan-screen in front of the speaker, and he gestured at the two confiscating her gun. They took her by the arms, not gentle.
"Kara Thrace, you are bound by law and will be held for questioning."
"On what charge?" she demanded, being manhandled into cuffs behind her back.
"You will be detained until such time as you are officially charged by the Alliance."
She struggled, just for the sake of it. "So just any old trumped up charge, as usual, huh? Frakking great," she growled. "I bet I know exactly what it says on the order, too..." She met Mal's eyes as they shoved her out the doors, not making it too obvious, just saying goodbye.
Zoe could tell right off that something was wrong. She looked from one to the other and asked, "Where's Kara?"
Mal gazed back at her impatiently, headed for the arms locker. Zoe followed on his heels. "Sir. How do you aim to handle this?"
"Aim to get her out, Zoe." He didn't pause on his way through the ship, just letting her follow along. He expected he was a good deal too het up over this, but he'd been having a fine morning, and those damn local yokels had gone and ruined the afternoon, as well.
"They'll have sent word to the Alliance by now. If Alliance wants her bad enough, reinforcements can be here within the hour. You think you can get out of this without making us a target again?"
Mal stopped and turned back to her. "Can't leave her here, Zoe. Not no more."
Zoe met his eyes dispassionately. "I understand, sir."
He didn't know how she could, when he wasn't sure his own self. But a thing had to be done, and he aimed to do it. Wasn't going to let the girl be run off on the Alliance say-so.
Zoe seemed to hesitate a moment, before she reached out and touched the back of his hand. "Mal." Her eyes were warm. Well, she always did have an easier time accepting this sort of thing than he did.
He sighed. "Zoe...I'm not sure and proper it's the best thing. Not even sure we need the girl."
Zoe stopped him, raising the same hand. "I'm sure, sir." She nodded shortly. "Let's get suited up and see if we pick up any noise."
Jayne popped around the corner behind her and hurried past both of them. "I'll get Vera." he called over his shoulder. "We owe her!"
Zoe raised an eyebrow at him pointedly. Mal shrugged. Man was happy to have his gun back together again. Nothing wrong with that.
River was watching the scanner up on the bridge. Mal handed over her guns and she rechecked them as he looked it over himself. "You should wait," she said.
"What's that?" The scan was clear, no Alliance signal yet.
"Wait," she repeated. "Watch and see."
"No use waiting when the only thing to happen's no good," Mal replied.
She shook her head, holding the guns in her lap, shoulders bowed over them "Stop now, it'll never be done," she said softly.
Mal looked down at her, troubled. "River...if I go on your say-so, we may never get another chance."
She raised her eyes and said nothing. He'd told the girl he valued her opinion, and she accepted his word. Mal put his hand on the back of her chair and rubbed his eyes. The girl's was a confidence he felt none of just now.
Across the street from the sheriff's department was the run-down office building of Carder's Orchard, their contact for the trade and a place mostly deserted during the day. Mal and Jayne sprawled across the porch, attempting to keep their guns out of sight and the women to the shadows. Zoe and River were with them, and Zoe brought the grenades. She hadn't blinked an eye when Mal told her they were going to sit on the plan for the moment, though Jayne had been none too pleased by the order to recon and wait. "This is a whole lot of staring at a rutting building while no one comes out," Jayne remarked.
Mal grunted. The heat of the sun was baking the crate of shit they'd hauled down main-street and sat nearby conspicuously. He was feeling a mite perturbed himself. The building they were watching sat silent and vulnerable, so far as the morning could tell.
'Round about midday, a small unmarked cruiser landed and Mal shifted in his seat until just the one suit climbed out. He got inside the building and it wasn't more than five minutes before the sheriff and all his posse from breakfast filed out and walked down the street, headed for the general store. Mal turned his head to River, a question in his mind. But she shook her head.
Mal wasn't wholly convinced that the girl could predict what took place inside Kara's holding cell, and Kara's life concerned him enough that he both listened to River's uncanny advice and kept his own counsel. But he could make not heads nor tails of it in his head. Seemed to him she was alone in there, with just the Alliance man. Didn't rightly make any sense.
"Think she was a plant all along?" Jayne asked. Mal finds Jayne's conclusions unpalatable, most times, though often valid. He frowns and keeps his mouth shut.
"Girl wasn't looking to spy," Zoe answered firmly, her voice sounding cool where it came out of shadows. "Know that much for sure."
"Well, what are waiting for, then?" Jayne returned.
Mal squinted through the sun. Eventually, he stood up. "Nothing. We're not waiting anymore. Zoe, take River and place yourselves 'round back. I'll signal if I need you inside. Jayne." He stalked across the street, mindful of the broad daylight and all of town, silent though it was, spread down the street he was crossing. The stairs announced him as he stomped up toward the front door, gesturing Jayne to stand away from him. He knocked, and flung it wide before he got a word in return. The door swung in and he looked around the front room of the Sheriff's office, just a desk and chair and a pot-belly stove, the smell of burnt coffee floating right past him out the door. "Hello? Sheriff?" he called, like a good upright citizen.
The Alliance officer walked out from the back. "Sheriff's down the street at the diner." Wasn't even holding his gun. Mal moved his in front of him and walked on in.
"Well, then," he said, "I'd be looking for a prisoner instead. Pretty little blonde thing, about yea high."
She walked out, untethered, behind. "Mal," she greeted him, with surprise. She stopped by the man's side and he glanced at her, making no move either to detain or bargain.
Jayne peered over Mal's shoulder. "I knew it, she's a spy all along," he announced. He raised up Vera, cradling her to his chest with more irritation with Mal, he supposed, than with Kara herself.
Mal felt no such allowance. "Care to explain?"
"I suppose you came to rescue me," she said instead. "You can see I don't need it." She crossed her arms and stared him down.
Mal reholstered his gun. "I surely can," he replied. "Anything else I should know?"
"We're the only ones here," she said. "Go now and you won't get caught."
"That so." Mal held his ground; not much ground to speak of, but he intended to get his answers here and now.
She widened her eyes and screwed up her face at him, fairly knocking him over the head with the firm impression leaving now really made a sight more sense. He clenched his teeth and looked from one to the other, the man inscrutable and his pilot urgently biting her lip.
"Well, my mistake," he said easily, and swung back out onto the porch. "See you folks later. Have a good day, now." He hurried Jayne back down the steps.
"What the gorram hell was that? You just gonna leave her there? I'd a liked to get 'hold of her."
Mal gestured at Zoe, tucked in around the back corner of the jailhouse, and kept up a steady pace on out of town. Zoe and River met up with them out of sight from the jail.
"I think she knew that Alliance fellow," Jayne observed.
"Girl can be acquainted with somebody Alliance without being one herself," Zoe remarked.
"Changed his stripes," River said. "You can change your clothes but you can't change who you are, just who people see you as."
"We going to wait around to find out?" Jayne demanded.
Mal didn't stop walking. "Just get to the ship."
Kara walked out to the ship slowly, not overly sure they'd be there waiting. But they were, and Mal stood a length from the ship, watching when she came around the bend, as though he knew she was coming that way. She couldn't help smiling at him a little, more out of surprise than joy. "Hi," she said, strolling up to him. "You get stuck?"
"My pilot didn't make the rendezvous," he replied dryly. He looked her over briefly. She was untouched, a little hot in this sun, but otherwise as he'd seen her last.
"Surprised you didn't leave her behind," she answered. Convinced of that, she'd regretted the loss of her stuff--the few items she had left, from the old days and these as well.
He shook his head silently, making no excuses. "Got to have a little faith, Kara."
Her head jerked. "You're kidding me, right?" she demanded. "We've both lost wars." She glanced back the way she came, rubbing her neck. "We've--some people I lost got killed, and some people became...something else." She flinched away from the words, from the fresh memory of Lee in his pressed uniform, looking like a man who was proud of his job instead of a man who settled. A man who used to believe in *more* than just surviving.
He was nodding acknowledgment. He'd guessed much of what she said, she supposed. Wasn't surprised by it. She glared at him. "I believed until I was blue in the face but we still didn't find Earth. You know why? Because there are no gods. Nobody's telling us where we're going." She raised her hands and dropped them, limply, by her sides. "Faith? Faith in...what."
He gazed back at her impassively. "Can't rightly tell you, Kara. Haven't seen anything to disagree with you. Only know that a man without faith can't stand. Or woman," he added with a little smile. "A man who can't stand himself can't act when he's called upon." He shook his head.
He stepped back toward his ship, and she just shrugged. What else could she do? He was insane. It'd been a long day and she didn't want to fight with him.
"May not know which way I'm going, but we aren't going anywhere just standing still. Get us back in the sky." He gestured toward the ship.
She smiled. "You could probably manage that without me," she said, just telling the truth.
Mal glanced at his crew, and Kaylee stepped forward. "We just like the way you do it," she said, arms wrapped around herself. She looked a little sheepish, but mostly pleased. Kara managed a smile back. She wasn't going to resist.
"Think we might still make our meet tomorrow, long as we don't expect more company," Mal remarked. He put his hand on the small of her back to guide Kara back aboard, and River spoke up. "Fire in summer is for comfort, not necessity." Mal eyed her. She shrugged. "And they all lived happily ever after."
Mal shook his head, Kara watching him. "Not forever, and no guarantee they'd be happy, little one. But maybe they lived." He looked to the sky, judging it fit for flying. "Could be most of them lived on after."
The End.
Firefly/Battlestar Galactica crossover (in which a BSG character or characters are transported to the Firefly 'verse.)
Pairing: Mal/Kara, some Simon/Kaylee.
Summary: Some people gotta find their own way in the 'verse. But if a man needs a pilot and a pilot needs a ship, could be they'll find their way together.
Spoilers: for Serenity the movie and anything through 'Lay Down Your Burdens' part 2 of Battlestar Galactica. This story takes place in a prospective BSG future, but contains no specific spoilers for season 3. If I refer to something that turns out to be true at some later point, I honestly have no knowledge of it being so now.
Disclaimer: I offer this story up to the internets, I own nothing except the way I put the words together. I just love pairing up Mal and Kara. Title from "Your kingbird" by e.e. cummings.
part one
Kara woke up the next morning alone. Fortunately, her head was clear. Her ability to hold her liquor was hard-earned and had kept her out of tight spots with captains before, but it also left her high-strung and moody. She hauled herself to a seated position and looked at the time. She'd prefer to sleep closer to the bridge, but she supposed they kept her in the lower part of the ship hoping she'd be less trouble. She used the toilet and checked out her matted hair in the cracked mirror, fluffed it a little and called it serviceable. The next challenge was finding a serviceable outfit. She had her threadbare tanks, two pair of pants, her jacket, her C-Bucks sweatshirt, socks and underwear. Only the underwear she was wearing had been bought within the last year. She hated all the clothes she'd seen for sale in this crappy 'verse, and a few months back had started to seriously regret not tracking down all the Fleet-issue clothing items that were discarded in their mad rush to fit in. She'd noticed right away the Alliance was anxious to make the Colonials look like any other damn citizen. Others never got why it bothered her--and probably never would. She wished she hadn't cared.
And she really wished she had a cigar to smoke right now.
Kara had decided to frak Mal. She hadn't had a good frak in awhile--a *long* while--and a few hours of dead sleep didn't make her forget the slow burn that bloomed like the booze inside her skin and informed her she wanted him. The itch hadn't gone away with the light head, and she hadn't been turned down in a long frakking time, either, so she was just irritated enough to ignore good sense. Sleeping with her commander never got her anywhere, but she was always just stupid enough to not care.
She arrived at breakfast all friendliness, watching Mal with strategy in mind, giving no hint of her imminent plan. But Mal was either a terrible drinker or more affected than he put on, because he was in a foul mood. Kaylee and Simon stumbled in late, as they were often, and Mal gave them a more pointed once-over than he ever had. "Much as I endeavor not to see the goings-on in my engine room, I surely don't have to abide the two of you come untucked to the table." He gestured impatiently. "Set yourself to rights, and Kaylee, I don't want to hear giggling this time neither."
Simon sputtered in embarassment, but Kaylee was still amused. "That's alright, honey. He's been in a bad mood since Inara left again. Some folks can't appreciate--"
"Reckless behavior? Foolish carrying-on all over my ship?" Mal demanded. "You remember what you were hired to do aboard this boat, little Kaylee, because I swear to you the moment you neglect your duties, you'll be left in the next port same as anybody else." He tossed down his napkin and stood up. "We'll be two weeks to the next one. Ain't too soon to plan." He marched himself off to the bridge, and left Kaylee and Simon looking stunned. Kara looked across the table at Zoe, matching her blank face.
"Old girlfriend?" Kara asked.
"I can't believe he talked at me like that!" Kaylee exclaimed. "What's wrong with the captain, Zoe?"
"Could be you oughten bring Inara up so much, Kaylee," Zoe said. "Trying to make it what it's not. Captain got that tamped down, you keep stirring it up."
Simon put his hand on Kaylee's shoulder. "The Captain would never put you off this ship, Kaylee," he said reassuringly."Me, on the other hand..."
"Simon, Cap'n woulda set you off long ago if he really wanted that."
"Don't either of you go reassuring yourselves," Zoe interrupted, tone brooking no argument. "Fussing won't get the job done." She replaced her knife and fork back beside her untouched plate and stood up. "What isn't working does us harm. Captain's not wrong asking you to get your heads screwed back on."
Jayne wandered in from the direction of his bunk, Zoe brushing him aside as she left. He headed for the food on the table, oblivious to the faces he passed in single-minded interest.
Kara reached for the last ship biscuit the moment before he did, and slipped away from the table without a word to take her shift. River was just leaving when Kara reached the bridge. She quirked her eyebrows at Kara oddly, but said nothing. "Hi," Kara said to Mal, taking River's seat in the co-pilot's chair. She pinched off a lump of hard tack in her hands. "You get bit by something last night in bed?"
He glanced at her sharply. "Interesting question, Major Thrace."
She looked away, frowning. "You looked me up?" She paused. "I thought they classified all that."
"Alliance locked it up real tight, which by-the-by is not soothing me. Only offers a note as to your rank."
"Former rank."
"As you say." His expression says clearly that the distinction is dubious at best. Her temper flares.
"Hey, I don't know what your hang up is about my military experience, but if you're looking for an excuse to throw me off your ship, I bet I can come up with a hell of a better one."
"I won't have any member of my crew answering split loyalties, ain't no way to stop one dividing the other. Crew has to answer to just one captain, 'n that's me." The fierceness in his voice only made Kara angrier.
"I've taken orders from a lot of high-handed Commanders in my time. I was loyal to every frakking one I served under, fit or not, and I only trusted one, but you really out-do them all. I don't know *how* to be loyal to two things at once," she said with bitterness.
He crossed his arms as she sat glaring at him, seeking out her rucksack in her mind. She kept her things packed when they weren't on her back, and her bag was tucked under the foot of her cot.
"You've raised a curiosity, Kara. You follow orders as you see fit or you follow a captain who gives fit orders?"
She rolled her eyes. "Sounds like the same thing." She turned away. "You going to let me do my job, or what?"
He said nothing for a few minutes and she ignored him. He was alarming in the upfront way he confronted problems. She definitely got the vibe the question was settled, but she couldn't shake the fear he was up to something else. Eventually, he pushed himself up out of the pilot's chair, saying, "S'pect I ought to get my money's worth, at that," and left.
Kara curled her hands into fists and gritted her teeth. She didn't know how to deal with this. He demanded answers and accepted them in the same breath. He didn't trust her and he clearly didn't resent it. He wouldn't sleep with her and he didn't treat her any different. And if Kara Thrace had learned one thing, it was that peace wasn't safe.
"We'll be wanting to pass through subtle-like the Alliance blockade 'round this planet." Mal leaned over Kara at the wheel. "They seem to get a kick out of checking papers and legal-shaped documents, of which we have none."
Kara looked back at him. "No problem. Low and fast work for you?"
"Should, at that," he replied. He shot a glance toward the other empty chair. "Where's River gotten to?"
"She said something about going down in flames and left."
Mal caught himself before he fell on the floor of the bridge, looking at her with slack face. She smirked. He felt compelled to remind her who was captain and how yanking the captain's legs out from under him was not a sign of respect, but she did seem to be the only pilot immediately available with hope of getting this ship down safe. He grit his teeth. She laughed, watching atmo break across their bow.
"Girl's got a way of getting her point across that isn't always clear outside her head," he said finally, forced to grab hold of her chair as the ship vibrated wildly.
"I noticed that," Kara replied. "Here we go, I'm shooting down to that canyon."
Mal cringed. "Wished you wouldn't use the word 'shoot'..." The ship dropped like a stone, right out from under him, and right through the radar zone, he'd guess. He found himself still on his feet just under cover of the valley, sun just going down over the craggy plains ahead. "Could be bandits in these," he warned her. "Strafing fire from either side."
She nosed the ship up, just as they near got tagged on the port side. "Frak," she murmured, flying true to center. "How high can we go before the Alliance picks us up?"
He was buckling himself into River's chair, checking monitors. "You get above ground and they'll see us," he said, reading numbers off.
She was quiet a moment, watching the flare of fire falling short of their broadside. "Oh, please," she said with sudden bravado. "I can skate on that much space." With that, she brought her hands up on the stick and the ship lifted away from the ground.
"That space ain't no bigger than this ship," he snapped across at her. "You get an inch above and they'll have us." He kept his eyes glued to the screen, cursing in his head. Damn fool military pilots, thinking all the time with their sleek jets. No getting around it, and he knew it well enough from the start.
"I won't get...an inch...above," she drawled; sounded like she was panting or licking her lips, but he didn't look up. "How'm I doing?"
"Keep her steady," he replied. He rested his hand on his ship, touching her gentle so she wouldn't start. Serenity was gliding along smooth as anything he'd ever seen. "There," he said finally. "We should be out of range, and our landing spot's just under this second ridge, tucked down close to the valley."
She didn't respond, but the ship did, dropping at increments until they floated slow over the landing space and touched ground with no bounce on the landing gear. Mal found his ability to speak caught up in his dry throat, and it was as well he didn't have need it.
Kara touched his ship's panelling, looking more'n a little impressed. "Good girl," she said, with a surprised turn to her voice. She laughed, soft and a mite breathless.
Mal watched her, mighty surprised himself. He stood up and she never glanced at him, standing there. He left to give her a moment alone, smiling to himself as he went.
After supper, after ignoring Jayne's complaints about being two days early, after watching Zoe push food around her plate and Kaylee refuse talking to Simon, Mal was in no mood to abide the company of his crew any longer. He made it clear he was headed for his bunk and an early night, catching up to Kara in the corridor as she escaped for solitude as well. He touched her elbow and brought her up short. "Surprises me, Kara, that you spend so much time alone. I had you pegged for a social sort."
She snorted. She crossed her arms and scratched idly at her chin. "Only when I can get them drunk, beat them at cards, or beat them up as I see fit." She smirked. "Otherwise, it seems like a real waste of time." She turned to part ways with him there, but he reached out again. She looked at him, part doubt and part impatience, but no wariness in her expression.
"Join me in my bunk," he said, and watched for that gleam to come in her eyes. She turned her back on him once more, and put a swagger to her hips in the one stride over to open his hatch, skimming right down his ladder.
She reached bottom seconds before he did, and had her shirt peeled off before he'd gotten that far with his thoughts. Startled him enough to realize her forwardness the other night hadn't been so much the alcohol as the girl himself, and it relieved him somewhat. He could see this woman was a force to be reckoned with, nothing coy about her as she pressed herself to his chest giving no thought to wielding her assets. He kissed her once, not getting too lost, and put his hands around her arms, making her step back. She was a damn fine woman, standing there with bright eyes and a strangely innocent face. He rubbed his hand up and down her arm, and as he did he glanced over the tattoo that covered one entire bicep.
Certainly, he'd noticed the marking before, but never asked about it, anyone having a right to secrets of a private sort. She smiled slightly at his touch, making no motion to volunteer the story, and he held his peace. She was a sinuous bundle of motion, lifting her hips against him and pressing the small of his back. Her face was all lit up and curious as she ran her fingers across his body in return, feeling out his scars even as he found hers. Merely to touch had a rightness to it that didn't require talk. She traced patterns with fingers and toes and followed suit with tongue, and he found himself inspired to do the same, curled up tight with her there in his bunk and not hardly any room to get creative, yet they made room for each other, twisting and turning and fitting until coming together seemed the natural thing. Her voice was gentle, a steady hum in his ear, letting him know how he was treating her. She was responsive to his touch, to the movement, as sensitive as a ship but prettier laid out on his pillow. She rested her hands around his neck and murmured, "Captain," a tremble of laughter in her breast, as he leaned his nose against her shoulder and breathed heavy. He rolled off her and smiled, trying to think of something witty to remark. She turned onto her side and looked him up and down, a look in her eye that said she wasn't nearly done. Then to kiss her again weren't nothing but a kindness, and nothing witty to be said about it at all.
He'd been keeping a wary eye on the goings-on between Jayne and his new pilot, with the desire that any unpleasantness happen right in front of him rather than somewhere he couldn't shoot them. Seemed Jayne and Kara were both more inclined to get tetchy when things were quiet, so it didn't surprise him in particular to come across the two of them boxing in the cargo bay. Did, however, surprise him that he had to haul himself out of bed to find her there in the middle of the night.
Mal leaned on the catwalk spanning the bay. For the moment, it seemed the pleasant way to let it be. Momentarily, Simon joined him, leaning on the rails nearby. Mal let it pass without comment, though the young man looked far from entertained. It hadn't escaped his notice that a discord had sprung up between Simon and Kaylee, following the words he spoke over their relationship. It seemed his young mechanic might well have kicked him out of her bed, and Mal, fresh from a groggy rest and wearing his boots but otherwise barely dressed, felt no need to stick his nose in.
"I reckon little Kaylee'll get over it, Doctor. 'Less of course she aims to talk you into leaving, settling down somewhere isolated on the ground or some other ship." Well, he was the captain. It was his prerogative to know what went on, on his very own ship.
Simon sighed, heavy with weariness. "I'm not leaving, Captain. I couldn't, not with River the way she is."
The falseness grated with Mal, just as it always had. "Imagine you and your sister are in as much danger as you ever were, Doctor, from the men in white coats with their needles, but I s'pect the Alliance itself has other things to be worried about just now. Moving about should be a sight easier, should you care to travel."
Simon looked at him and nodded, slowly. "I didn't mean that, though, Captain. I meant--how she feels. About Serenity." He brushed one finger over the top of his nose, a sign of discomfort. "It's home now."
Mal glanced him over, the man-boy who, in more than one ways, ought not be standing here by his side. Simon didn't duck his head, and he didn't flush with the protective instinct that'd long been the double-sided burr in Mal's side. Could be he'd learned something, after all this time. Mal wouldn't begrudge him the lesson.
"We'll do whatever we need to, to stay," Simon finished. Mal nodded shortly.
"See that you do, Doctor." He left him to jog down the scaffolding. Kara and Jayne didn't look as he came up wto them. "Seems to me far too few people on this boat are sleeping, while it's yet dark outside and no use us heading into town for a meal."
Kara stepped out of Jayne's reach before she glanced at him. "Is there an order in that somewhere?"
Jayne snorted, stepping in too quickly. Kara struck him across the chin, but he got under her arm before she moved back.
"Hey!" She held her stomach.
"Don't suppose Jayne knows any fancy rules," Mal remarked, "but I hope you two are pulling your punches. Last thing I need is two members of my crew taking each other out."
She shrugged and swung her shoulders, loosening up. The antsy energy was pouring off her, same as every other night he'd caught her down here. Girl had trouble getting rest, that was plain to see. "All in fun, Captain."
Jayne watched her narrowly. "Yeah, Mal," he repeated.
"Be that as it may," Mal said, stepping between them. "There's a few hours before dawn, and you should be about getting some sleep."
Jayne opened his mouth to whine. "Go on," Mal waved him off. "Two of you can finish hitting each other later." He went to open the storage box so they could drop their gloves back in, and saw that Jayne took himself upstairs. Mal was slow about following, but didn't wait about for direction. Half way up, he noticed Kara was heading the other direction. "Hey," he called down to her.
She glanced up at him. "Off to get my two hours of laying down with my eyes closed, Captain," she smirked. Her hair was stuck to her face and her eyes were dark and tired. She kept moving.
"I find the ceiling in my bunk can put a man right to sleep. Or woman, be that as it may," he added, magnanimously.
She grinned and whirled on her foot, dashing right up to him without hesitation. She was leaning in to kiss him, closed-mouth. "I don't know, Captain. Didn't seem so bad to me."
"S'pect you just weren't trying hard enough."
Her eyes lit up at the challenge. "Okay," she agreed, and threaded her fingers inside his unbuttoned shirt. "C'mon, then."
The town saloon doubled for a general store, the two of them taking up the largest and busiest building in town. Simon tried to get out of going, offering to stay with the ship, but Zoe out-ranked him, and ignored the look Mal shot her when she said she'd stay behind. Kara knew there was a story to Simon's hesitance to go out in public, but no one had ever volunteered to tell it, and she didn't particularly care to know. River was too excited about stepping out to eat to get too worried, anyhow.
Kaylee was still making a big show out of ignoring Simon, and only walked with River when the younger girl took her arm. Simon lagged behind and from where she walked with Mal, Kara could hear well enough Jayne deliving a harangue which Simon mostly tried to ignore. Kara grinned and watched Simon's attempts to fall out of step with the bigger man, Jayne oblivious to all social niceties.
"Reckon a better man would try to rescue the young doctor," Mal remarked eventually.
Kara laughed, light and airy in the fresh air. It was the first time in years she'd walked on the ground willingly, not afraid she'd never be back in the air. "Let him see to himself," she said. "Or you'll embarrass him."
Mal smiled slightly. "Can't have that."
At the wide porch of the big, clapboard building, Simon stopped and spun about to face Jayne. "I do *not* think a man has to stand up to his 'woman,' as you say, in order to get respect. I believe men and women are capable of coming to some sort of--arrangement--out of mutual respect, and in that way they can find some measure of peace or--or--agreement." His eyes blazed back at Jayne, and he opened his mouth to continue, when Kaylee fell into his side and grabbed his arm.
"It's alright, honey," she said with a wide smile. "You don't have to make fancy speeches to get me back."
Simon looked perplexed, as Kaylee pulled him with her through the entrance. River pinched Jayne as he went by. "Ow!" He jerked back and she danced out of the way before Mal had to jump in. "What was that for?" Jayne whined, rubbing his arm.
River smirked. "You know what." She rolled her eyes enigmatically and followed Kaylee and Simon in. Jayne looked at Mal beseechingly.
Kara laughed outright. "Never pegged you for a romantic, Jayne."
Jayne scowled. He said something like, "damn women running the ship," under his breath, going in ahead of them.
Kara nudged Mal. "Nice crew you got, Captain."
"Have noticed that," he replied.
They sat around a table--all six--and ate real eggs, presumably from real chickens, and apples, which were the only thing that grew on this planet and were readily available. The apples were, in fact, what Mal intended to trade the load of fertilizer for, assuming things actually went to plan the next day.
Kara wandered the general store with Kaylee and Simon, Kaylee with a better idea what they'd need and Mal holding the purse strings tight. A ship was never so well stocked they didn't need odds and ends, something for the ship, or something to replenish the food supply. Kara was well acquainted with how fast a reasonable pantry could become short supply. Mal and Jayne were asking the storekeeper about scrap metal outside, and Kaylee was working on Simon over a piece of pottery, when River jerked around and looked at the door, alarmed. Kara turned, but there was the dining room still packed and the doors were flung wide, men out on the porch smoking lazily. Kara herself was fingering a dusty box of cigars.
"What's the matter, River?" Kara asked absently. Mal looked up, accounted for his group quickly, and tensed when he locked eyes with the girl. Kara dropped the box.
The doorway was full of men in uniforms, swarming into the store. The storekeeper stepped in front of them. "Gentlemen, are you here to eat or on business?"
"We're here to apprehend--"
Kara paced forward enough to cover the three behind her, hand dropping to the gun on her hip, and the official's eyes landed on her hard. "Keep your hands away from your weapon," he snapped, three of them coming toward her from each side. "Present your papers."
"Sir." Another held up a scan-screen in front of the speaker, and he gestured at the two confiscating her gun. They took her by the arms, not gentle.
"Kara Thrace, you are bound by law and will be held for questioning."
"On what charge?" she demanded, being manhandled into cuffs behind her back.
"You will be detained until such time as you are officially charged by the Alliance."
She struggled, just for the sake of it. "So just any old trumped up charge, as usual, huh? Frakking great," she growled. "I bet I know exactly what it says on the order, too..." She met Mal's eyes as they shoved her out the doors, not making it too obvious, just saying goodbye.
Zoe could tell right off that something was wrong. She looked from one to the other and asked, "Where's Kara?"
Mal gazed back at her impatiently, headed for the arms locker. Zoe followed on his heels. "Sir. How do you aim to handle this?"
"Aim to get her out, Zoe." He didn't pause on his way through the ship, just letting her follow along. He expected he was a good deal too het up over this, but he'd been having a fine morning, and those damn local yokels had gone and ruined the afternoon, as well.
"They'll have sent word to the Alliance by now. If Alliance wants her bad enough, reinforcements can be here within the hour. You think you can get out of this without making us a target again?"
Mal stopped and turned back to her. "Can't leave her here, Zoe. Not no more."
Zoe met his eyes dispassionately. "I understand, sir."
He didn't know how she could, when he wasn't sure his own self. But a thing had to be done, and he aimed to do it. Wasn't going to let the girl be run off on the Alliance say-so.
Zoe seemed to hesitate a moment, before she reached out and touched the back of his hand. "Mal." Her eyes were warm. Well, she always did have an easier time accepting this sort of thing than he did.
He sighed. "Zoe...I'm not sure and proper it's the best thing. Not even sure we need the girl."
Zoe stopped him, raising the same hand. "I'm sure, sir." She nodded shortly. "Let's get suited up and see if we pick up any noise."
Jayne popped around the corner behind her and hurried past both of them. "I'll get Vera." he called over his shoulder. "We owe her!"
Zoe raised an eyebrow at him pointedly. Mal shrugged. Man was happy to have his gun back together again. Nothing wrong with that.
River was watching the scanner up on the bridge. Mal handed over her guns and she rechecked them as he looked it over himself. "You should wait," she said.
"What's that?" The scan was clear, no Alliance signal yet.
"Wait," she repeated. "Watch and see."
"No use waiting when the only thing to happen's no good," Mal replied.
She shook her head, holding the guns in her lap, shoulders bowed over them "Stop now, it'll never be done," she said softly.
Mal looked down at her, troubled. "River...if I go on your say-so, we may never get another chance."
She raised her eyes and said nothing. He'd told the girl he valued her opinion, and she accepted his word. Mal put his hand on the back of her chair and rubbed his eyes. The girl's was a confidence he felt none of just now.
Across the street from the sheriff's department was the run-down office building of Carder's Orchard, their contact for the trade and a place mostly deserted during the day. Mal and Jayne sprawled across the porch, attempting to keep their guns out of sight and the women to the shadows. Zoe and River were with them, and Zoe brought the grenades. She hadn't blinked an eye when Mal told her they were going to sit on the plan for the moment, though Jayne had been none too pleased by the order to recon and wait. "This is a whole lot of staring at a rutting building while no one comes out," Jayne remarked.
Mal grunted. The heat of the sun was baking the crate of shit they'd hauled down main-street and sat nearby conspicuously. He was feeling a mite perturbed himself. The building they were watching sat silent and vulnerable, so far as the morning could tell.
'Round about midday, a small unmarked cruiser landed and Mal shifted in his seat until just the one suit climbed out. He got inside the building and it wasn't more than five minutes before the sheriff and all his posse from breakfast filed out and walked down the street, headed for the general store. Mal turned his head to River, a question in his mind. But she shook her head.
Mal wasn't wholly convinced that the girl could predict what took place inside Kara's holding cell, and Kara's life concerned him enough that he both listened to River's uncanny advice and kept his own counsel. But he could make not heads nor tails of it in his head. Seemed to him she was alone in there, with just the Alliance man. Didn't rightly make any sense.
"Think she was a plant all along?" Jayne asked. Mal finds Jayne's conclusions unpalatable, most times, though often valid. He frowns and keeps his mouth shut.
"Girl wasn't looking to spy," Zoe answered firmly, her voice sounding cool where it came out of shadows. "Know that much for sure."
"Well, what are waiting for, then?" Jayne returned.
Mal squinted through the sun. Eventually, he stood up. "Nothing. We're not waiting anymore. Zoe, take River and place yourselves 'round back. I'll signal if I need you inside. Jayne." He stalked across the street, mindful of the broad daylight and all of town, silent though it was, spread down the street he was crossing. The stairs announced him as he stomped up toward the front door, gesturing Jayne to stand away from him. He knocked, and flung it wide before he got a word in return. The door swung in and he looked around the front room of the Sheriff's office, just a desk and chair and a pot-belly stove, the smell of burnt coffee floating right past him out the door. "Hello? Sheriff?" he called, like a good upright citizen.
The Alliance officer walked out from the back. "Sheriff's down the street at the diner." Wasn't even holding his gun. Mal moved his in front of him and walked on in.
"Well, then," he said, "I'd be looking for a prisoner instead. Pretty little blonde thing, about yea high."
She walked out, untethered, behind. "Mal," she greeted him, with surprise. She stopped by the man's side and he glanced at her, making no move either to detain or bargain.
Jayne peered over Mal's shoulder. "I knew it, she's a spy all along," he announced. He raised up Vera, cradling her to his chest with more irritation with Mal, he supposed, than with Kara herself.
Mal felt no such allowance. "Care to explain?"
"I suppose you came to rescue me," she said instead. "You can see I don't need it." She crossed her arms and stared him down.
Mal reholstered his gun. "I surely can," he replied. "Anything else I should know?"
"We're the only ones here," she said. "Go now and you won't get caught."
"That so." Mal held his ground; not much ground to speak of, but he intended to get his answers here and now.
She widened her eyes and screwed up her face at him, fairly knocking him over the head with the firm impression leaving now really made a sight more sense. He clenched his teeth and looked from one to the other, the man inscrutable and his pilot urgently biting her lip.
"Well, my mistake," he said easily, and swung back out onto the porch. "See you folks later. Have a good day, now." He hurried Jayne back down the steps.
"What the gorram hell was that? You just gonna leave her there? I'd a liked to get 'hold of her."
Mal gestured at Zoe, tucked in around the back corner of the jailhouse, and kept up a steady pace on out of town. Zoe and River met up with them out of sight from the jail.
"I think she knew that Alliance fellow," Jayne observed.
"Girl can be acquainted with somebody Alliance without being one herself," Zoe remarked.
"Changed his stripes," River said. "You can change your clothes but you can't change who you are, just who people see you as."
"We going to wait around to find out?" Jayne demanded.
Mal didn't stop walking. "Just get to the ship."
Kara walked out to the ship slowly, not overly sure they'd be there waiting. But they were, and Mal stood a length from the ship, watching when she came around the bend, as though he knew she was coming that way. She couldn't help smiling at him a little, more out of surprise than joy. "Hi," she said, strolling up to him. "You get stuck?"
"My pilot didn't make the rendezvous," he replied dryly. He looked her over briefly. She was untouched, a little hot in this sun, but otherwise as he'd seen her last.
"Surprised you didn't leave her behind," she answered. Convinced of that, she'd regretted the loss of her stuff--the few items she had left, from the old days and these as well.
He shook his head silently, making no excuses. "Got to have a little faith, Kara."
Her head jerked. "You're kidding me, right?" she demanded. "We've both lost wars." She glanced back the way she came, rubbing her neck. "We've--some people I lost got killed, and some people became...something else." She flinched away from the words, from the fresh memory of Lee in his pressed uniform, looking like a man who was proud of his job instead of a man who settled. A man who used to believe in *more* than just surviving.
He was nodding acknowledgment. He'd guessed much of what she said, she supposed. Wasn't surprised by it. She glared at him. "I believed until I was blue in the face but we still didn't find Earth. You know why? Because there are no gods. Nobody's telling us where we're going." She raised her hands and dropped them, limply, by her sides. "Faith? Faith in...what."
He gazed back at her impassively. "Can't rightly tell you, Kara. Haven't seen anything to disagree with you. Only know that a man without faith can't stand. Or woman," he added with a little smile. "A man who can't stand himself can't act when he's called upon." He shook his head.
He stepped back toward his ship, and she just shrugged. What else could she do? He was insane. It'd been a long day and she didn't want to fight with him.
"May not know which way I'm going, but we aren't going anywhere just standing still. Get us back in the sky." He gestured toward the ship.
She smiled. "You could probably manage that without me," she said, just telling the truth.
Mal glanced at his crew, and Kaylee stepped forward. "We just like the way you do it," she said, arms wrapped around herself. She looked a little sheepish, but mostly pleased. Kara managed a smile back. She wasn't going to resist.
"Think we might still make our meet tomorrow, long as we don't expect more company," Mal remarked. He put his hand on the small of her back to guide Kara back aboard, and River spoke up. "Fire in summer is for comfort, not necessity." Mal eyed her. She shrugged. "And they all lived happily ever after."
Mal shook his head, Kara watching him. "Not forever, and no guarantee they'd be happy, little one. But maybe they lived." He looked to the sky, judging it fit for flying. "Could be most of them lived on after."
The End.